Translator: Lordbluefire

  “In the past, you didn’t know when you might die, so you lived recklessly. I can understand that. But now, you have at least ten years to live. In that case, you have to cherish it!”

  Sun Mo’s tone was severe.

  The greatest problem with the sickly invalid was him not treating his life as something important. He naturally cared even less about the lives of others.

  Death to him was something as insignificant as eating a meal. If he died, so be it.

  “Although people often say that death is like the extinguishing of a light, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There’s nothing left behind. However, I feel that memories of that person will still be left behind.”

  Sun Mo spoke from the bottom of his heart.

  “These memories will remain in the minds of your parents, your wife, and your good friends. I always felt that when a person passed away, only their body has died. It’s only true death when everyone in the world has forgotten about them. On the other hand, even if he is alive, once he is forgotten by everyone, that’s also no different from death!”

  This was Sun Mo’s understanding of life.

  “I feel the stuff Teacher is talking about is very complicated.”

  Lu Zhiruo scratched her head and couldn’t understand.

  The other students were seriously listening and pondering. Even the combat addict Xuanyuan Po was very focused right now. He hoped to know the definition of death.

  If he was afraid of death, he would never be able to become a spear saint!

  “Yaoguang, what do you think?”

  Sun Mo turned his gaze toward the lively girl who loved snacking.

  “This is a question only those old scholars who were about to die would ponder over. I’m still young. What I should do is to live well day by day and not waste my time!”

  Qin Yaoguang peeled a candy and tossed it into her mouth as she chewed loudly.

  “This can be considered a type of understanding!”

  Sun Mo originally wanted to persuade Qin Yaoguang not to waste her talent. But he gave up after some hesitation.

  This girl seemed careless, but she was actually very mature. Just like her current chatting attitude with Sun Mo, there wasn’t too much respect. It was more like an idle chat between colleagues.

  Li Ziqi’s gaze was filled with disdain as she glanced over.

  (Where’s your respect?)

  Qin Yaoguang also noticed that her attitude was a little remiss. She then stuck her tongue out at her eldest martial sister in embarrassment.

  “Helian!”

  Sun Mo stared at the barbarian youth. His condition was very good, and this meant that he had not been slacking off and was very industrious in training. Also, his eyes were very spirited and he even exuded a somewhat bookish air now.

  “Not bad, one has to read more books before they can understand the right and wrong of things, knowing what’s good and what’s evil!”

  Sun Mo was very satisfied.

  The vast majority of barbarians were courageous without brains, believing solely in brute force. They loved to use their fists to handle problems. However, Helian Beifang was different from them.

  Now that he was clad in long robes and had a face cloth, absolutely no one could recognize that he was a barbarian. This was the aura nurtured by reading.

  “Junior martial brother Helian, I feel that you will become a general that’s equally accomplished in the field of scholarly knowledge!”

  Li Ziqi teased. She was very fond of Helian Beifang’s current demeanor.

  Among her junior martial siblings, she liked his style the most.

  “Eldest martial sister is praising me too much!”

  Helian Beifang replied politely.

  “Qi, damn scholar!” Qin Yaoguang twitched her lips and mumbled. “Inflexible and boring!”

  “Come over here!”

  Sun Mo clenched his right fist. When a white glow surrounded it, he punched out and stopped before hitting Helian Beifang’s forehead, directly channeling his insights into Helian Beifang!

  BOOM!

  “This is the Black-White Soldier Chapter that Headmaster Song Yan bestowed on me. I’m imparting this to you. Learn well, I want you to do a study note every week and let me check it.”

  Sun Mo gave him some homework.

  Speaking of which, among his students, only Li Ziqi and Helian Beifang were more like students of the modern era. The others all had some problems.

  “What?”

  Qin Yaoguang’s eyes widened in shock as she blurted out, “Did I hear it wrongly? The Black-White Soldier Chapter? Isn’t that the ultimate divine art of the Black-White Academy?”

  The other students also stared at Sun Mo with doubt and shock.

  “This should be false, right?”

  The sickly invalid felt this was impossible.

  “Tantai, what do you mean by this?” Li Ziqi frowned. “Is our teacher not worthy to learn their ultimate divine art?”

  “.……”

  Tantai Yutang rolled his eyes as he mentally mused. (Do you know that is the ultimate divine art of their school?)

  Just from hearing the name, it was clearly a secret that wouldn’t be casually passed down.

  In other words, only about ten people in the Central Province Academy were qualified to learn the [Great Dreams Heart Sutra]. At the very least, Sun Mo’s disciples weren’t qualified.

  Honestly speaking, An Xinhui had discussed this matter with Sun Mo before. She felt that Li Ziqi, Lu Zhiruo, and Jiang Leng could learn it. As for the others, it was best to wait and see for now.

  Bluntly speaking, she didn’t trust them yet.

  After all, the Great Dream Heart Sutra’s might was very powerful. If the users harmed others after learning it, it would be very dangerous for the Nine Provinces.

  “There’s no mistake, what I learned was the ultimate divine art of the Black-White Academy. So, Helian, you must never expose it!”

  Sun Mo warned repeatedly.

  “Teacher!”

  Helian Beifang knelt with a thud and started kowtowing.

  (This… How great of a kindness is this!? Even if I use a lifetime……no, ten lifetimes, I won’t be able to repay this debt of kindness! Even my own father wouldn’t treat me so well!)

  Ding!

  Favorable impression points from Helian Beifang +10,000. Reverence (31,000/100,000).

  The other students were dumbfounded.

  Although they knew their teacher was outstanding, wasn’t this a little way too impressive?

  He actually imparted an ultimate divine art from one of the Nine Greats to an outsider!

  “Headmaster Song definitely doesn’t have a daughter!”

  Qin Yaoguang spoke with confidence.

  “Why?”

  Lu Zhiruo didn’t understand.

  “If he has one, he would have betrothed her to our teacher.”

  After Qin Yaoguang finished speaking, she slid her feet and moved beside Sun Mo. After that, she squatted down and removed a sweet wrapper before popping the sweet into Sun Mo’s mouth. She then started to massage his thigh.

  “Teacher, I wish to learn it too!”

  Qin Yaoguang acted coquettishly.

  Jiang Leng and the others didn’t speak, but their gazes could convey their intentions. After all, this was a peerless saint-tier cultivation art. Who wouldn’t want to learn it?

  “It wouldn’t be too late to learn it after you guys finished the homework I assigned to you!”

  Sun Mo rejected and then looked at Jiang Leng. “It isn’t that I don’t want to teach you guys. However, this cultivation art emphasized military tactics and strategies. To you all, the benefits aren’t great. Besides, I’ve taught you guys several peerless-grade saint-tier cultivation arts. If you still learn more, it would be like having too much food in your mouth, leading you to be unable to chew.”

  The students hurriedly nodded. “Your disciples understand!”

  “You can get up too!”

  Sun Mo helped Helian Beifang up. “Don’t kneel to kowtow so easily. You are my disciple. It’s my responsibility to do my best and nurture you.”

  Sun Mo truly wasn’t biased.

  He hoped to impart each of his disciples an excellent cultivation art based on their traits and advantages. When they mastered the cultivation art he had taught them initially, it wouldn’t be too late for them to learn more from him.

  “It’s truly too good that we can meet Teacher in this lifetime!”

  Xianyu Wei once again thanked the heavenly gods. If it wasn’t for his favor, how could a barbarian girl like her enter the tutelage of the most impressive rising star in the Central Plains?

  (When I return to the dorm at night, I have to burn a few more sticks of incense to thank the gods.)

  “Xianyu!”

  Sun Mo looked at the girl and couldn’t help but frown. “What happened? Why are you so plump now?”

  During this year, Xianyu Wei didn’t grow any taller, but her weight increased rapidly.

  “I……I…!”

  Xianyu Wei was so afraid that she wanted to cry. She instinctively wanted to say that she hadn’t been lazy, but Sun Mo’s status in her heart was simply too lofty. Hence, she basically didn’t dare to argue. She directly knelt and admitted her mistake. “P……please punish me!”

  “In the future, control your mouth well. Eat less meat and sweet stuff!”

  Sun Mo sighed after using Divine Sight to scan Xianyu Wei’s stats. Her physique was one that would gain fats rapidly. Although she hadn’t been lazing around, she simply ate too much.

  As Sun Mo’s personal disciple, Xianyu Wei was able to get a sum of money from the financial department of the school. She had spent all of them on extra food. After all, one must know that eating in the school canteen didn’t cost anything.

  Also, due to her relationship with Sun Mo, the canteen aunties would always leave the best and largest portions for her. They would also give her an additional portion for supper every day.

  “If you kept stuffing yourself with food, it would harm your body!”

  Sun Mo suddenly felt that only youths like this were normal, loving to play and eat and having ‘flaws’. Students like Xuanyuan Po and Ying Baiwu were working too hard.

  Sun Mo used an entire morning to inspect the results of his students for the past year and helped them to resolve the problems that they had accumulated, also individually tailoring new training plans for each of them.

  Other than Xianyu Wei who was a little lazier, the others were very industrious. Sun Mo didn’t have the chance to scold them even if he wanted to. After lunch, he headed to the dorm for male students to look for Qi Shengjia.

  …

  “Teacher Sun is back, are you not going to greet him?”

  Zhou Xu glanced at Qi Shengjia who was currently studying and felt somewhat speechless. (If I were you, I would have long since stuck to Teacher Sun like glue.)

  “Old Qi, it isn’t that I want to lecture you. However, you truly don’t know how to make good use of opportunities!”

  Wang Hao hated iron for not becoming steel. “Who is Teacher Sun? He could just casually say things and that would benefit you boundlessly for the rest of your life. Isn’t that countless times better than studying so hard alone?”

  “I…”

  Qi Shengjia wanted to go, but he was worried he might bring trouble to Sun Mo and cause Sun Mo to loathe him.

  “Why don’t I accompany you there?”

  Zhou Xu suggested and glanced at Wang Hao. “Do you want to go too?”

  Wang Hao hesitated but eventually shook his head.

  A missed opportunity was a missed opportunity. If he went now, Sun Mo also wouldn’t accept him as a personal student.

  (Ai!)

  (I was truly so blind back then. This is such a sturdy thigh, but I missed hugging it.)

  Pak!

  Wang Hao slapped himself.

  He was so angry every time he thought about this.

  Boom! Boom!

  Someone knocked on their dorm’s door.

  “Who is it? The door is not locked!”

  Zhou Xu shouted.

  Creak!

  Sun Mo pushed the door open and entered.

  “I’m not playing cards today. I have no mood!”

  Zhou Xu thought it was the student next door who wanted to find them to play some cards. However, when he lifted his head and saw Sun Mo, he was so frightened that his soul almost flew away. He immediately sat up violently, causing his bed to emit a creaking sound.

  Bang!

  Due to him being overly nervous, he even knocked his head against the bunk bed above. However, he didn’t dare to rub it.

  “Teacher Sun!”

  Zhou Xu jumped down from his bed and greeted him respectfully.

  “Teacher Sun!”

  The half-naked Wang Hao had gotten down from the bed and was hurriedly putting some clothes on.

  Qi Shengjia’s other dormmates also greeted Sun Mo.

  Because it was break time, everyone was here.

  Sun Mo nodded and replied to everyone. After that, he looked at the honest guy.

  “Shengjia, how have you been this past year?”

  Zhou Xu moved a stool over and wiped it with his sleeves. After that, he passed it to Sun Mo. “Teacher, please take a seat!”

  “I……I’m living very well!”

  Qi Shengjia stuttered and his eyes were wet. He was so moved that he almost cried.

  Boohoohoo!

  (Teacher actually still remembers me! In my next life, I will definitely work like an ox or horse to repay your kindness!)

  Chapter 1175: Sun Mo, Decision Maker of the Central Province Academy

  Translator: Lordbluefire

  In the male student dorm, Sun Mo explained and solved all of Qi Shengjia’s questions that he had encountered during his cultivation recently.

  One couldn’t help but say that this honest guy was truly foolish. He didn’t know how to raise one and infer three.

  Among Sun Mo’s personal students, Lu Zhiruo’s brains were the worst when it came to cultivation and Xianyu Wei was after her. But even so, these two still stood above Qi Shengjia.

  Honestly speaking, if it wasn’t for Sun Mo seeing that the honest guy was willing to suffer a lot and work so hard, he wouldn’t bother guiding him and even giving him massages, alchemy pills, medicinal bath packets, also allowing him to cultivate in the Wind King Divine Hall. Otherwise, this little guy absolutely wouldn’t have his current achievements.

  “Why are you unable to understand things better?”

  Sun Mo was fretting as well. (I can’t always explain the same topic three times, right?)

  “Teacher, it’s all because of my fault for being stupid!”

  Qi Shengjia knelt. His eyes were red as he kowtowed forcefully to Sun Mo.

  “Stand up. Since your talent is lacking, just use hard work to mitigate it!”

  Sun Mo consoled and stared at the other students. “If you guys have any questions, feel free to raise your hands and ask.”

  Everyone had been waiting for this. Hence, when they heard it, their spirits stirred and all of them put their hands up in unison.

  Right now, Sun Mo’s fame was too great. If one wanted to attend his medical cultivation lecture, they had to go the night before to queue for seats. Wanting to wake up early and head there two hours earlier to queue?

  That was impossible!

  Through the questions of the students, Sun Mo could judge their potential. These people before him were all average at best and their futures would be limited.

  “It is still a priority to expand the fame and reputation of the school to recruit better students!”

  Because of the commotion here, all the guys in the building started gathering before the dorm. Although there were now over 300 people, the atmosphere was completely silent as everyone listened quietly to Sun Mo’s explanations.

  They cherished this opportunity very much.

  This session lasted for two hours.

  “Alright, afternoon classes are about to start. All of you can go and prepare for them!”

  Sun Mo rose.

  Huala~

  This movement of Sun Mo caused all the students to quickly stand up straight and open up a path to let him walk through.

  “We will respectfully send Teacher off!”

  Sun Mo waved his hands. “In the future, there’s no need to be so courteous!”

  As they watched Sun Mo leaving the dorm, Zhou Xu stared at Qi Shengjia who stood unmoving on the spot. He hated iron for not being steel and launched a kick at Qi Shengjia.

  “Ah? What are you doing?”

  The honest guy tumbled. He was completely clueless.

  “You are really foolish. Why didn’t you send Teacher Sun out?”

  Wang Hao was speechless.

  Zhou Xu’s lips twitched and felt indignant. He didn’t know why Teacher Sun favored this brat so much.

  “Oh!”

  Qi Shengjia finally realized what was going on. However, he stopped after taking two steps. He truly wasn’t able to take such an action that contained a hint of ingratiation.

  “Ai, as I always say, when someone’s luck comes, there’s really nothing that can block it!”

  Wang Hao shook his head. If it wasn’t for Sun Mo, Qi Shengjia would have long since been asked to leave the school and work for the landlord in his home. One could say that Sun Mo had changed his life.

  …

  As the resting period of three days passed, the great teachers Sun Mo had headhunted began to work officially.

  Some students tried listening to a lecture and were immediately stunned and convinced.

  The teachers from the Nine Greats were truly worthy of their reputation. Leaving aside a high star-ranking great teacher like Li Feng, even those who had just graduated and were intern teachers were extremely logical and clear with their lectures, causing the students here to benefit greatly.

  Given the aptitudes of these students, they weren’t qualified to enter the top schools. But now, they could receive an education of the same standard. Hence, they felt so happy, like enjoying a feast while celebrating the new year.

  However, some people were unhappy, and they were the current teachers of the Central Province Academy. Not only did the pressure on the intern teachers become as heavy as a mountain, causing them to lose sleep, even the 1-star and 2-stars great teachers felt very uneasy.

  There was no solution as the competitiveness was too great!

  There were only so many teachers one school could provide for. If Sun Mo headhunted even more teachers, wouldn’t they lose their rice bowls?

  After Xia Yuan entered the office, she saw that her colleagues were all here. However, they weren’t drinking tea and chatting idly like in the past. Instead, they bent over their desks and were working hard.

  “Sister Xia!”

  Du Xiao greeted sweetly and took the initiative to pour her a cup of tea.

  “Thanks!”

  Xia Yuan sat down and glanced at Xiao Hong.

  The latter was a great teacher that would just while her time away as she waited for retirement. But now, she also started to work hard. Actually, she worked even harder than the younger teachers.

  “Teacher Xia, has the headmaster told you about her future plans?” Not long later, Jiang Yongnian moved closer to her seat.

  “What’s my status?” Xia Yuan rolled her eyes. “Why would the headmaster talk to me about such matters?”

  “You are Headmaster An’s iron supporter!”

  Jiang Yongnian fawned. “Even if we are asked to leave, nothing will happen to you. Quick, tell us if Headmaster An is still preparing to headhunt more great teachers.”

  Swish~

  The ears of the others here secretly pricked up.

  This matter concerned their careers so everyone couldn’t help but be concerned.

  In the past, everyone had the mentality of salted fishes. No matter how bad they did at their jobs, they wouldn’t be fired. After all, the Central Province Academy was just a ‘D’ grade academy back then. If An Xinhui had fired them, she wouldn’t be able to find any better teachers elsewhere.

  But after Sun Mo appeared, everything became different.

  Under his management, the Central Province Academy became better and better and even entered the ‘B’ grade. The pressure on everyone increased, but it was still in an acceptable range. Their hard work still permitted them to follow the rise of the school.

  However, Sun Mo had managed to headhunt great teachers from the Black-White Academy. It was fine if he only headhunted one or two people, but he actually brought an entire group of graduate students plus high star-ranking great teachers!

  (This is forcing us to die!)

  So how could these great teachers with ordinary standards still dare to be salted fishes?!

  “I don’t know Headmaster An’s intention, but Department Head Sun has been together with us for a few months, working in the same office. Do you guys still not know how hardworking he is and what his goal is?”

  Xia Yuan didn’t reply directly.

  Everyone thought about it and heaved a sigh of relief in unison.

  “Can our school really rise into the ranks of the Nine Greats?”

  Du Xiao felt a yearning for the future.

  “Stop dreaming. Even if our school could enter the ranks of the Nine Greats, you would have turned into a corpse before that!”

  Gao Cheng twitched his lips.

  Not a single person here had the ability to work in any of the Nine Greats.

  “Is Sun Mo trying to force us to death? Can we still live? Is there a need for him to be so ruthless?”

  The more Xiao Hong thought about it, the more panic she felt, causing her to subconsciously say this. After that, she started in shock and realized that she had said something wrong. What would happen if someone informed Sun Mo about what she had just said?

  Hence, she laughed awkwardly and sought to remedy the situation. “It’s still a must to force things as we wouldn’t become talents if there’s no external pressure!”

  “Say, Sun Mo is so strong and has become the honorary headmaster of the Black-White Academy. Why doesn’t he simply just stay there?”

  Jiang Yongnian shook his head and pondered. Luckily, his relationship with Sun Mo wasn’t that bad and he had no need to worry that Sun Mo might take revenge on him. Speaking of which, should he pay Sun Mo a visit to express his loyalty?

  Jiang Yongnian thought about it but decided to give up. Given Sun Mo’s current status, unless he found an opportunity to make things seem like a ‘chance encounter’, he probably wouldn’t be able to meet Sun Mo.

  Because out of everyone’s expectations, Sun Mo had headhunted so many people over. This caused a chain reaction and ‘stimulated’ all the great teachers working in the Central Province Academy.

  Regardless of low star-ranking or high star-ranking great teachers, a more conducive environment to learning and working soon manifested. Everyone wanted to have results so they could obtain Sun Mo’s recognition.

  Now, An Xinhui’s prestige in the hearts of the teachers in the school had diminished to a negligible point. Everyone was already treating Sun Mo as the decision-maker of the Central Province Academy. ……

  Ten days after Sun Mo returned, Prince Consort Qi Mu`en personally paid him a visit to invite him to a dinner banquet. The topic of that night would be the Five Empires War Discussion.

  Brightmoon Inn, one of the top three inns in Jinling, would usually be filled to the brim every night. But today, when many high officials and nobles came here for a meal, they discovered that the place had been fully booked.

  What was a peak-level influential official?

  Someone like Li Xiu!

  When Sun Mo brought Li Ziqi here, he saw that the five levels of the inn didn’t have a single guest. And at the peak where the scenery was the most beautiful, Zheng Qingfang and Qi Mu`en were already seated.

  The boss of the inn led all his staff to stand at the side and bowed, preparing to serve them any time.

  “Uncle Zheng, Prince Consort Qi. Isn’t the standard of how you guys treat guests a little too exaggerated?”

  Sun Mo frowned, feeling that it was somewhat extravagant.

  Prince Consort Qi was also a smart man. When he saw Sun Mo’s expression, he immediately laughed as he explained.

  “The matters we will be discussing today are somewhat more important, so we have to guard against eavesdroppers.”

  When Zheng Qingfang heard this, he wanted to laugh. Actually, this was because of the eldest princess’s dining habits. The Prince Consort was still okay, but Li Xiu didn’t like places with many people.

  Speaking of which, after Prince Li died, Li Xiu’s clan became the clan with the highest authority in Jinling City. Qu Mu`en could do whatever he wanted with no restraints at all.

  But today, he had to take into consideration what Sun Mo was thinking about.

  This was clearly a little friend of his, but he had become a character with an extremely important status. Even royals wouldn’t dare to slight him.

  “However, Sun Mo. Why do you refer to Old Zheng as uncle while me as Prince Consort? Isn’t this treating me a little too much like an outsider? You ought to drink three cups of wine for it!”

  Qi Mu`en teased.

  Sun Mo smiled. He truly wasn’t that familiar with Qi Mu`en.

  After Li Ziqi greeted Zheng Qingfang and Qi Mu`en, she sat at the side obediently.

  “Sun Mo, I’ve read your [A Dream of Red Mansions]. I wonder what the content is in the next half?”

  Zhang Qingfang was extremely impatient.

  After knowing that [A Dream of Red Mansions] was written by Sun Mo, he wanted nothing more than to immediately fly to Sun Mo’s home to chat with him every night. However, he eventually bore with the impulse.

  He also knew of Sun Mo’s shocking achievements in Liaojing. Someone that could be admired by Headmaster Song was no longer a minor character whom an old subject like him could meet whenever he wanted to.

  “Everyone died, the only ones alive are…”

  Just when Sun Mo wanted to say some spoilers, Zheng Qingfang stopped him.

  “Stop! Stop! Stop!” Zhang Qingfang was speechless. “Why are you revealing this?”

  Sun Mo shrugged, his meaning was clear without words. (Are you not the one who asked me?)

  “You…”

  Zheng Qingfang’s original intention was to make Sun Mo write out the next half of the book. But after thinking about it, he knew that Sun Mo didn’t really have much interest in literature……

  “I heard that you only wrote [A Dream of Red Mansions] for the sake of recruiting a great teacher?”

  Qi Mu`en was curious.

  “Mn!”

  Sun Mo didn’t want to continue on with this topic. “What’s going on with the Five Empires War Discussion?”

  “That great teacher is truly fortunate!”

  Zhang Qingfang felt envious. (How good would it be if Sun Mo could write a book for me?!)